Reading Skill

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

There are some glimmers of hope. I met up young Navdeep. Ahuja who along with another colleague began the innocuously named Graduates Welfare Association, Fazilka. They are bringing about change with the mandate of citizens' participation in governance and are facilitating the creation of physical and social infrastructure across 22 cities in Punjab. They have put in place a network of cycle rickshaws called Eco-cabs which can be booked through a mobile phone. They are also developing car tree zones, food and culture streets in these cities. All this is being done very efficiently and at a low cost. We need many such organizations. However, my ideal of a city in 2020 is not a utopian dream. It is achievable. It has streets where people walk on wide footpaths shaded by leafy trees. Streets are usually one third of a city's area and its most democratic segment. Public space dedicated to pedestrians recluces inequality and shouId be accorded priority when developing cities. Adjoining the streets should be cycle lanes where bicycles and, rickshaws can sail past smoothly. It'll have a great public transport system with buses, metro and taxis. Parking will be difficult and expensive so people will use public transport rather than cars. There will be parks and gardens and the air will be clean, as pollution levels will have dropped dramatically. And then cities will become areas of graceful living and a charmed way of life.

(1) What is the extract about? ( 1)

(2) What will happen when parking becomes difficuIt and expensive? (2)

(3) How has Graduates Welfare Association brought about changes in some cities? (2)

(4) What efforts will you take to make your city a livable place? (2)

(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
(i) We need many such organizations.
(Frame a ' Wh-question' to get the underlined part as an answer.) (1)
(ii) It reduces inequality.
(Rewrite it using the Present Perfect Tense.) (1)
(iii) The air will be clean, as pollution levels will. have dropped dramatically .

(Rewrite it using 'unless') (1)

(6) Find out the words from the extract which mean:
(i) co-worker  (1/2)
(ii) small signs  (1/2)

Read the following extract and then do all the activities that follow :

How do you know
Peace is a woman?
I know for
I met her yesterday
on my winding way
to the world’s fare,
She has such a wonderful face
just like a golden flower faded
before the prime.
I asked her why
She was so sad?
She told me her baby
was killed in Auschwitz,
her daughter in Hiroshima
and her sone in Vietnam,
Ireland, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon,
Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo and Chechnya ......

A1. Web -

Completely the following web by listing character mentioned in the extract :

A2. Poetic device -

Figure of speech :
‘Peace is a woman ?’
Name and explain the figure of speed in the above line.

A3. Personal response :

Suggest two solutions to avoid wars.

A4. Creativity : 

Compose two poetic lines titled “Say ‘no’ to wars”. 

         In more recent times Gandhiji, perhaps, is one who assiduously brushed aside adulation to remain a free ‘nobody’. At the Congress session when he, the star of the session, stunned everybody by cleaning up the latrines, his act was calculated to purge Congress workers of their false sense of status, and so to return the movement to its down-to-earth roots. The point of guarding against becoming a self-defeating somebody applies to the upbringing of children as well. Doting parents often stunt the natural growth of their children through excessive adulation. Common place acts and utterances of the child are praised and quoted beyond reason. Talent that otherwise might have flowered uner proper training, is lauded to the extent of killing it.
     John Stuart Mill’s education and training began very early. At an age when many kids can barely lisp a few words, he had learnt enough Green and Latin to read to classies in the original. Before he was five he had read more than what many scholars normally reac in thei career. Did this make the child John feed heady ? No! Because, he tells us, his father (who was also his tutor) always made him believe that there was nothing extraordinary about his achievement that he was doing only what anybody is capable of doing Mill was made to believe that other boys of his age had, in fact, grossly underestimated their capabilities and were wasting their early years striving for too little.
     The sequence of somebody-nobody holds true, in a way, in respect of institutions and nations as well. C Northcote Parkinson, enunciating one of his famous laws, has tried to read this pattern in the case of great empires worldwide. He connects the raising of imposing palaces to the begining of the empire’s decline.

Read the first activity, read and extract and then do all the activities:
A1. True / False  (2)

Correct the following statements if they are false :
(i) Gandhiji stunned everybody by cleaning up the roads at the congress session.
(ii) Talent is lauded to the extent of killing it.
(iii) Other boys of John Stuart Mill’s age had, in fact, grossly underestimated their capabilities.
(iv) Parkinson without enunciating one of his famous laws, has tried to read the pattern of the sequence of somebody nobody, in the case of great empires worldwide.

A2. Complete the statements — (2)
John Stuart Mill’s father helped his son (how) :
(i) _________________
(ii) ________________

 A3. Elaborate : (2)
“The raising of imposing palaces is the begining of the empire’s decline” Elaborate meaning of this statement.

A4. Vocabulary : (2)
Find out four similar meaning words for ‘admiration’ from the extract.

A5. Personal response : (2)
Express your views on development of children to lead them towards success.

A6. Grammer — (2)
Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
(i) He had learnt enough Green and Latin to read the classics in the original.
(Rewrite using ‘as well as’.)
(ii) Doting parents often stunt the natural growth of their children through excessive adulation.
(Rewrite the sentence changing it into passive voice.)

Read the given extract and then do all activities that follow: 

If you do not get lowered in your own eyes
While you raise yourself in those of others
If you do not give into gossips and lies
Rather heed them not,- saying, ‘Who bothers?’
You may be the person I am looking for.
If you crave not for praise when you win
And look not for sympathy while you lose
If cheers let not your head toss or spin
And after a set-back you offer no excuse.
You may be the person I am looking for.
If you accept counsel without getting sore
And reassess yourself in the light thereof
If you pledge not to be obstinate any more
And meet others without any frown or scoff.
You may be the person I am looking for.

A1. Enlist (2)

Enlist any four things that inspire you to live inspire of failures:
(i) ____________________
(ii) ___________________
(iii) ___________________
(iv) ___________________ 

A2. Poetic Device? (2)

Figure of speech :
Pick out an example of Refrain from the extract and write down its criteria to identify it. 

A3. Personal Response (2)

Express your views in about 50 words, the need to look for an ideal person. 

A4. Poetic creativity? (2)

If you do not get lowered in your own eyes.
While you raise yourself in those of others.
If you do not give in to gossips and lies
--------------------------------------------------------------------
You may be the person I am looking for.
Compose a line of your own to rhyme with the second line in the given stanza. 

Read the extract and do the activities that follow : 

‘Your father was my enemy,’ said Frederick. ‘I would have been better pleased by your brave deed if you had told me of another father?’
‘I am proud to be Sir Rowland's son,’ answered Orlando angrily,’ and I would not change my place to be the heir of this dukedom.’
The Duke and his lords went away, leaving Orlando alone with Rosalind and Celia. Celia was angry with her father for speaking so unkindly to Orlando. ‘Would I have done this in my father’s place?’ she said to Rosalind.
‘My father loved Sir Rowland as much as his own soul,’ Rosalind said to Celia, ‘and all the world agreed with him. If I had known that his young man was Sir Rowland’s son I should have begged him with tears not to take so great a risk.’
‘Let us go and speak to Orlando,’ said gentle Celia. ‘I am ashamed of my father’s rude and angry words.’
The two girls went up to Orilando and praised him for his bravery. Rosalind took a gold chain from her neck and gave it to him. ‘I would like to give you more’, she said, ‘but I am not rich.’ Then she and Celia went away.
Orlando, however, could not forget them. He had already fallen in love with the fair Rosalind, but he could not stay at the Duke’s palace. His friends warned him that Frederick was angry and jealous of him. They told Orlando to leave the dukedom, because the Duke meant to do him harm.

A1. Match - 

Match the characters and their attributes: 

A2. Write an imaginary paragraph: 

Write an imaginary paragraph in about 50 words in continuation with the given extract. 

Read the following extract and then do all the activities that follow :

I rain into a stranger as he passed by
“Oh, excuse me please” was my reply.
He said, “please excuse me too; wasn't even watching for you.”
We were very polite, this stranger and I.
We went on out way and we said good-bye.
But at home a different story is told.
How we treat out loved ones, young and old.
Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My daughter stood beside me very still.
When I turned, I nearly knoked her down.
“Move out of the way,” I said with a frown.
She walked away, her little heart broken.
I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.
While I lay awake in bed,
God's still small voice came to me and said,
“While Dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use,
But children you love, you seem to abuse.”

A1. Order- 
The incidents narrated in the extract are arranged in a jumbled manner here, Rearrange them in a proper order as they occur in the extract:
(i) The poet and the stranger went on their way saying good-bye.
(ii) Seeking excuse politely from the stranger, she went her way.
(iii) The poet ran into a stranger on the road.
(iv) The poet yelled at her daughter.

A2. Poetic device:
Make a list of rhyming pairs from the second stanza and note down the rhyme scheme of the same stanza.

A3. Personal Response:
Understanding and politeness are the essentials of out everyday life. Explain your views in brief.

A4. Creativity -
Frame two poetic lines on the following situation using a rhyming pattern with the help of clues given:
“While introducing great personalities, we praise them highly and talk about their qualities, but while speaking
about our friends we may not follow the same trend.”
While introducing great personalities, — a
------------------------------------ — a
But while speaking about our friends, — b
------------------------------------ — b

Read the extract and do the activities that follow: (4)

B1. Pick up the false sentences from those given below and write down the correct ones for them :(2)
(i) Alfie wanted to stay at the place to fight with the animal.
(ii) Ginger yelled of terror when he noticed white models grinning at him.
(iii) According to George's opinion, the boys could not go prowling about someone else’s house.
(iv) Tom had no desire to meet a gang of criminals.

B2. Convert dialogue into a story : (2)
Convert the above dialogue into a story form in about 50 words.

Read the extract and do the activities that follow: (4)

B1. Complete _____
Complete the following sentences:
(i) The boys considered the dentist as a ghost , because ________
(ii) Listening to the repeated scream, Tom thought that ________
(iii) The grinning mouths were models made of ________
(iv) The idea of carol-singing was given by _______

B2. Convert dialogue into a story:
Convert the above dialoguc into a story in about 50 words.